New blog

Hi bloggers

Just a quick post to let you know I am back in blogland but having a fresh start and set up a new blog Simply Cards by Sarah

Would love it if you could pop over and join me, in need of friendly followers :)

Many thanks

Sarah

A little challenge

One of the lovely ladies on the Oyster Stamps DT is running a little challenge, if you pop over to Suzanne's Cards you will see a some lovely cards but her challenge is to make one of the double diamond cards as shown with her very first tutorial. One lucky person may even win a prize :) Here's my card and it really is easy, Suzanne's instructions were spot on I have used one of my very first and favourite Lili of the Valley images, I think it might even have been one of my first rubber stamps! Anyway I've coloured it with Promarkers and must say love how it's come out. Another favourite is the sentiment "Precious and few are friends like you!" unfortunately I can't remember the make but know I bought it from Quixotic Paperie. Kraft cardstock and Making Memories papers with some gorgeous Wild Orchid Flowers. Why not pop over and try something a bit different to the usual square card lol I'm sure Suzanne would love to see your creations.

Alpha Challenge - C

It's the second letter of The Craft Barn's alphabet challenge but not as we know it. The next letter is C so I have chosen Clock as my word, having just purchased some lovely Docrafts Chronoloy stuff.

I stuck my piece of dictionary page to my ATC and using distress stains in Fired Brick, Rusty Hinge, Vintage Photo and Antique Linen over some punchinella (not that you can tell now) coloured the background. It was then embossed with a Tri Boss folder (love how much detail are in these), inked over with Vintage Photo then embossed with clear embossing powder, added charms and sentiment which has glossy accents on. The word of my choice seemed to have vanished as it all came out a bit darker than I planned, but think I managed to resucue it by distressing with a craft knife and stripping back some of the layers. Hope you like it, I'm really enjoying these. I might even do a set of tags as well.

Creative Moments #9 "Neutral"

Over at Creative Moments today we have a new challenge and the theme is "Neutral" so we want to see cards with subtle colours or scenes of nature whatever your interpretation of neutral is. Here's my card, using a gorgeous image from our Sponsor. This is another card design I saw on From My Craft Room, it's a gatefold with a window which is an easy card fold with a twist. I used the gorgeous Marieanne scalloped circle inside with my circle nestie, image coloured with Promarkers, Papermania Capsule papers and Prima flowers. The sentiment is by Whiff of Joy.

Please pop over and join in, we'd love to see your creations.

Some recent creations

Well here we are again Sunday evening, where does the weekend go? Whilst my attempts at creating and spending have returned, my blogging is still terrible, don't think I'll ever be the greatest blogger. I have made a few cards, we are also decorating the hall, stairs and landing so does that count as papercrafting? My first card was requested by my Mum for her friend, she wanted a sewing theme. I opted for something a bit different than a cute image (basically because I didn't have one lol).

The papers were from a Making Memories stack and I used the Tim Holtz Sewing Room die with the fabulous Kraft Resist paper. Inked with Fired Brick and Barn Door. I added lots of lovely embellishments. Mum loved it and I hope her friend did too. Next we have a trial run of a card design that was taken from this wonderful blog My Craft Room by a lady called Norma who has kindly added lots of brilliant easy to follow tutorials.

The papers are from a K&Co stack I've had forever, one of my favourite Tilda's coloured with Promarkers which I am slowly getting the hang of using again, LoV sentiment and Wild Orchid flowers and a bit of lace and few pearls to finnish. Thanks for looking, see you all soon

Alphabet Challenge

First of all I'd like to thank Sandy at Sweet Sands and Crafts for telling me about this challenge, as you all know I'm trying to get my creative juices flowing again. This is a fabulous new challenge for the year by The Craft Barn. You need to alter a dictionary in some shape or form. It can be the book itself, a page from the book made into another book or a snippet from the dictionary used on a tag or atc. They will choose a random letter every fortnight and you must pick a word to use as your theme. There may also be a twist to the letter to avoid future planning! I decided to do ATC's firstly they are quick and easy and secondly I've been meaning to get back into them and a complete set of the alphabet would be fabulous. So without further ado, the first letter is V for Vehicle

I used distress inks to colour the section of dictionary masking the word of my choice to highlight it, followed by marker. I used the Tim Holtz mini embossing folder with the vintage car and inked this in a darker ink and added some destination postmarks and spritzed with pearl mist. An acetate overlay was attached with the stamped words "Enjoy the Journey" and a chipboard letter V to finnish. Looking forward to the next letter.

First ever 12x12 Scrapbook pages

I have always wanted to try scrapbooking but it frightened me lol, having decided making cards was a bit pointless at times I bit the bullet and bought the gorgeous Forever Friends New Arrival scrapbook. If I didn't do it now with a new baby I never would. Well today I've finally done my first two pages and think I've found my feet.

I can't wait to do some more, hope you like them.

Some crafty news

I am thrilled to be able to say I have been asked to join the Design Team for Creative Moments (and not so pleased to see my scheduled post didn't work lol) this is a fairly new blog and runs alongside Crafting with Attitude over on Facebook. Please pop over for a nosey, become a follower and play along. The theme this week is Monochrome and I have used digital images by The Cutting Café one of our fab sponsors.

The digi images are from a set called Social Butterfly, I cropped and flipped the butterfly branches and added the 3d butterfly with lots of bling and the fabulous sentiment means it doesn't have be a birthday card it can be an any day card. Look forward to seeing you over there.

A-tish-oo

It's my craft club meeting on Tuesday so I had to come up with a project for the ladies, a friend led me to the instructions for these sweet little boxes for tissues, what with all the coughs and sneezes at the moment they will come in handy.

It's made from one piece of A4 card and really easy. It was a quick sample so just grabbed nearest patterned paper and a Lili of the Valley topper, added some gorgeous flowers to finnish. You can find the instructions here

White on White with a hint of pink

I'm on a roll this week, the next creation is for the Crafting with Attitude nightly challenge on facebook - the theme being white on white. I love these but must admit to feeling out my comfort zone.

I used the swiss dots embossing folder, my favourite and most used, along with some new Sizzix dies the Ornate Plate and centre dies from the nesting Damask frames, I added some swirls too, all inked in Spun Sugar distress ink, added a bit of bling and gorgeous flowers to finnish.

Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2013

I admired this challenge last year and saw some amazing creations, I had previously joined in with the 12 days of Christmas challenge which I loved so thought this year I would have a go. It's been a while since I've done anything "inky" so this was a good way to get back into it. You can find the details here

I didn't have some of the required components but improvised - I have since bought a Chronology stash!

Hope you like it.